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Beats and Elements: A Hip Hop Theatre Trilogy: No Milk for the Foxes; DenMarked; High Rise eState of Mind
- Author: Murray, Conrad
- Editor: Beswick, Katie
Beats and Elements: A Hip Hop Theatre Trilogy: No Milk for the Foxes; DenMarked; High Rise eState of Mind
- Author: Murray, Conrad
- Editor: Beswick, Katie
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About
This collection of three hip hop plays by Conrad Murray and his Beats & Elements collaborators Paul Cree, David Bonnick Junior and Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens, is the first publication of the critically acclaimed theatre-maker’s work. The three plays use hip hop to highlight the inequalities produced by the UK’s class system, and weave lyricism, musicality and dialogue to offer authentic accounts of inner-city life written by working-class Londoners.
The plays are accompanied by two introductory essays: The first gives a specific social and historical context that helps readers make sense of the plays, the second positions hip hop as a contemporary literary form and offers some ways to read hip hop texts as literature. The collection also includes a foreword by leading hip hop theatre practitioner Jonzi D, interviews with the Beats & Elements company, and a glossary of words for students and international readers.
Contents
- - Foreword
- - Class and UK Hip Hop (essay)
- - Hip hop lyricism (essay)
- The Plays:
- - No Milk for the Foxes by Paul Cree and Conrad Murray - Weaving hip hop lyricism with comic naturalism, this play tells the story of two security guards on zero-hours contracts working the night-shift at a washing machine components factory.
- - DenMarked by Conrad Murray - This solo performance is an autobiographical story that weaves hip hop with Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It narrates Conrad’s account of growing up in a violent family in South London, as an abused mixed-race child in the social ca
- - High Rise e(S)tate of Mind by David Bonnik Junior, Paul Cree, Conrad Murray and Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens - Inspired by JG Ballard’s novel High Rise, this is the dystopian tale of a high rise tower block in London, interwoven with the performers’ personal
- - Reflections (interviews with Beats & Elements)
- - Glossary
